Flexible door



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FLEXIBLE DOUE.

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H. N. H.' LUGRIN.

. FLEXIBLE D003.- I No. 520,065. Patented May 22, 1894.

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Imran, Il a UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HORATIO N. H. LUGRIN, OF VORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE LUGRIN FLEXIBLEV DOOR COMPANY, OF PORTLAND, MAINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 520,065, dated May 22, 1894.

Applctiml filed January 30, 1891. Serial No. 379,680. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, HoEA'rro N. H. LUGEIN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Worcester, in the county of Vorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Flexible Doors, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, representing a flexible door embodying my invention, and in which- Figure l represents an elevation of a door embodying my invention, with the door casings at the sides and the top of the door removed, on line as, Fig. 2, in order to disclose the operating mechanism. Fig. 2 is a top view of the operating mechanism, the inclosing casing having been removed on line y, y, Fig. l. Fig. 3 represents the bent arms attached to the upper ends of the door stiles, to which the operating cords are attached. Fig. 4t represents the top portion of a single door, with the take-up device attached to the operating cord. Fig. 5 is atop view, represented in sectional view on line X', X', Fig. 4. Fig. 6, shows a modified form of the take-up device, and Fig. 7 represents another modification of the take-up device.

Similar letters refer to similar parts in the diEerent figures.

Referring to the drawings Fig. l, represents a double door, or a door formed in two independent sections meeting at the center of the doorway or opening, cachot the sections moving from the center outward in the operation of opening the door. The body of the door itself consists of a flexible curtain or shutter preferably made of aseries of parallel wooden bars, or strips, hinged together at their edges by means of pintles, transverse bands of metal, or by canvas or other flexible material. In the side pockets B, B, are journaled the shafts C, C, having collars C', C', to which one edge of the iexible curtains are attached, the rotation of the shafts C, C, causing the flexible curtains A, A', to be wound up in a coil around their respective vertical shafts C. Each of the sections A, A', are provided at theirfree edges with a bar or stile D, D to the upper ends of which are attached the bent arms or brackets E, E'. To the upper ends of the vertical Winding shafts C, C, are attached Vthe cone drums F,

F', each of which are provided with a spiral groove to receive the operating cords G, G'. The cord G, is attached at one end to the larger end of the cone F, and at its opposite end it is connected to the bracket E', attached to the stile D', of the curtain A'. In like manner the cord G', has one end attached to the larger end of the cone F', with its oppo site end connected with the bracket E, attached to the stile D, of the curtain A. The connection of the cords G, G', with the brackets E, E', are made by means of eye bolts H H', held in the brackets E, E', and provided with nuts I, I', by which the cords G, G', may `be taken up. Interposed between the cords G, G', and the eye bolts H, H',are the spiral springs J, J', which provide for a variation in the length of the cords G, G', that may be required by anyirregularity 4in winding the cu rtains A, A', around their respective winding shafts. If the curtain A,be moved to the left, Fig. l, the cord G', will be unwound from the cone F', causing the shaft to which the cone F', is attached to be rotated and the curtain A', to be wound around it, drawing the curtain A', to the right and by the movement of the curtain A, A', the vertical shaft C, is caused to rotate by the unwinding of the cord G, thereby causing the curtain A, to be wound Y around the shaft C, as fast as the stile D, is moved toward the left. In the same manner the movement of the stile D', toward the right will cause the shaft C, to be rotated by the unwinding of the cord G, producing a corresponding movement of the stile D, toward the left thereby unwinding the cord G', from the cone F', and causing the curtain A', to be wound around the shaft C. The two sections of the door or the curtains A, A', can therefore be opened by a force applied to either one of the sections alone and when the doors are opened both curtains A, A', can be simultaneously closed by vdrawing either the stile D, or D', to the center of the door opening. If the stile D, be moved from the side of the door opening to the center in the operation of closing the door, the curtain A, will be un- Wound and the shaft C, willbe rotated winding up the cord G, which will draw the stile D', and its connected curtain A', toward the center of the opening.

'Ihe above described method of simultane- IDO onsly operating the two halves of a flexible door or two flexible curtains together forming a door is not only adapted for wider openings where double doors are accustomed to be used, but also for the ordinary doorway ot two and one half or three feet in width and when so used the curtains forming the two sections of the door will be comparatively quite narrow and the coil formed by'winding them around their respective shafts will be correspondingly small and capable of being inclosed Within the space ofthe ordinary door casing. As the door is being wound the rst coil is wound upon the collars C', C', but each successive coil of the curtain will be wound upon the preceding coils thereby forming a polygonal drum. This causes the winding of the door to be liable to be irregular, or in other words, causes the door to be wound with Varying speed during each single rotation of the winding shafts C, C, and as the cords G, G', are wound and unwound with regularity upon the drums F, F', the variation in the winding of the curtains A, A', renders an ad- Justment necessary which is provided for by the insertion in the cords G, G', of the'takeup device consisting, as illustrated in Figs. 1,

- interference.

2, 4, and 5, of a spiral spring which is made to form apart of the flexible connection between the curtains and the winding drums. These springs, as attached to the cords G, G', are held in a constant state of tensionrso that in case the cords are unwound from their conical drums faster than their attached curtains are being wound the springs will act to take up the slack, and in case the cords G, G', are being wound upon their conical drums faster than the curtains are being unwound the springs will expand, thereby increasing the length of the flexible connections between the curtains and the conical drums. The brackets E, E', are attached to theV upper ends of the stiles D, D', respectively and are bent or offset in order to allow the cords G, G', to pass each other without The take-up device, consisting of the spiral springs J, J', can be used in connection with a single door or a door in which a single curtain or shutter is used to close the opening said use of a take-up device is illustrated in Fig. 4, in which the door K, is connected by its free edge K', with the conical drum K2, by means of a exible connection K3, which comprises the spring K4, whose elasticity allows the requisite variation in the length of the flexible connection K3, to conipensate for the irregularity in winding the curtain K, around the vertical shaft K5. Fig. 5, represents the same device shown in top View and Fig. 6, represents the same arrangement of exible door and winding drum with a flexible connection between them, but showing a modified form of the take-up device which consists of a pivoted lever L, carrying at its free end a roll L. The roll L', rests upon the cord K3, and the lever L, is weighted to cause the roll L', to bear with sufficient force upon the cord, in orderto take up any` slack in the cordV consequent upon the irregular winding of the curtain K, around the vertical shaft K5. When a single curtain or shutter is used the flexible connection K, between the free edge of the door K', and the conical Winding drum K2, must be carried around a pulley N, to change its direction and this feature of the construction allows the take-up features to be modified as represented in Fig. 7, in which the pulley N, is carried upon a sliding bar N', which is actuated by aspring N 2, to slide the bar N', carrying its pulley N, against the flexible connection K, and taking up the slack in the cord.

There are many other well known and obvious methods by which the length Yof the flexible connection between the free edge of the curtain and the conical winding roll may be varied in order to compensate for the irregularity in winding the curtain itself. I

Yshutter is Wound a curtain or shutter arranged to be wound aroundl said shaft, a. helical drum attached to said shaft, a flexible connection connecting said helical drum with the free edges of said curtain or shutter and a take-upl mechanism, substantially as described, connected With said flexible connection in order to compensate for theY irregularity in winding said door or shutter, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a pair of flexible curtains, or shutters, arranged to be drawn from opposite sides of a door or other opening in order to close the same, vertical shafts around which said curtains are arranged to be wound, drums attached to said shafts, arms or brackets attached to the free edges of said curtains, screw threaded rods provided with adj usting nuts held in said arms and a flexibleconnection bet-Ween said screw threaded rods and said winding drums, substantiallyas described.

3. In a flexible door the combination with a rotating shaft and a door arranged to be` I-IORATIO N. H. LUGRIN.

Vitnesses:

Ru'nus B. FOWLER, H. W. FOWLER. 

